Saturday, 17 June 2017

A World of Storytellers

Who doesn’t love to listen to
stories? There are all sorts of stories that we love to listen to, and some of
them happen to be marketing communication. When it comes to B2C communication,
we have seen time and again various FMCG brands employing this trick while
creating advertisements. Some of the prominent names that come up are
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and more recently, Double mint from Wrigley, have
successfully used this method to get much higher audience and convey the
message in a way that is hard to ignore.

The question we are facing today
is, whether or not this process of storytelling will work when B2B
communication is on mind.

Even though the communication is
said to be B2B, it is in fact between two people. As a human being, we all love
to hear stories. Some will actually say that the B2B communication is the best
form of P2P communication (person to person communication). And, when another
person is involved, how can storytelling fail?

Let us analyze our daily
activities. We go about our business for sure, but then, we also catch up with
friends and family, share our day, gossip, chat, watch movies and plays. If you
think closely, you will see that we all enjoy the old form of storytelling and
engage in it in one way or another.

Does storytelling benefit your business communication?

Storytelling has its own charm –
a fact attested by any content marketing
agency. It is proven fact that a story has greater capacity of holding the
attention of the target audience than any other form of advertisement or
communication. Integrating storytelling into B2B communication will definitely
help in capturing the interest of the person reading it and make it possible to
present the data and ideas in a much more efficient manner.

B2B communication is a lot about
data. However, no one likes to go through pages of data. There are very few
people out there who will actually take time to pour over the sheets of data if
you present one. But, if you integrate the same data into a small narration
that feels like storytelling, there is a much higher probability that you will
get your message across nice and strong.

How to be a better storyteller?

According to the 2016 report of
the Content Marketing Institute, 41% of B2B marketers wish to be a better
storyteller and that is one skill they all want to develop. So, how can your content marketing agency be a better
storyteller?

Business communication often
becomes quite boring and monotonous with all the data and figure on the sheet.
You need to be able to present then in the best possible manner. Storytelling
is the key.

Be specific and to the point – Let’s
face it, none of us remember more than 3 to 5 points we read online in a blog
or any type of content. Keep yourself in your audience’s shoes. Be precise and
give points that they will remember for long.

Make it conversational and interesting –
It is easy to fall into the trap of creating a boring content that is quite
business like. Do not fall prey to this. Make your narration interesting and
use conversational tone.

A good content
marketing agencywill agree that there is no one way to use storytelling in
B2B communication. But, when we start with “Once upon a time…” that’s a
nostalgia none of us can escape from.